The panel also promoted carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a way to reconcile rising energy demand with climate action.

“We need to move from talking about ‘unburnable’ carbon to ‘unemittable’ carbon”, said John Scowcroft, from the Global CCS Institute.

Environmental activists are planning a protest against the involvement of fossil fuel companies in Lima on Monday.

They argue such groups should be banned, in the same way tobacco lobbyists are excluded from World Health Organization events.

Campaign group 350.org homed in on an event planned by the Global CCS Institute that was provisionally titled: “Why divest from fossil fuels when a future with low emission fossil energy use is already a reality?”

This “hilariously convoluted” name showed the divestment movement was putting “serious pressure” on the energy sector, 350.org co-founder Jamie Henn wrote in the Huffington Post.

It refers to a movement led by 350.org, under which universities, local authorities and faith groups have withdrawn investment from fossil fuel companies.

This is intended to stigmatise industries that profit from greenhouse gas emissions.

Organisers later changed the event name to the more neutral: “How can we reconcile climate targets with energy demand growth?”

I’ve been going to climate talks since 2005 and have never heard so much discussion about getting completely off fossil fuels. #COP20